The Marseille professor folds. Friday June 2, Didier Raoult and his co-authors decided to withdraw a “pre-print” published on a controversial study about patients with Covid and treated in Marseille. “All the authors (including me) of the pre-print which is so frightening by showing that one could treat, have decided, in solidarity with Professor Lagier threatened by the management, to withdraw the pre-print so as not to suggest to a betrayal on his part and to protect the youngest”, announced in a tweet Didier Raoult in the evening.
A little earlier, Marseille hospitals (AP-HM) had always indicated on Twitter that “following discussions with the General Management, Professor Jean-Christophe Lagier, co-author and head of service in the disease center infections today announced the withdrawal of pre-print”.
We are the good guys! All the authors (including me) of the preprint which is so frightening by showing that we could treat, have decided, in solidarity with Professor Lagier threatened by the management, to withdraw the preprint so as not to suggest a betrayal of his leaves and for…
This was described earlier this week as “the largest known ‘wild’ therapeutic trial” by 16 learned medical societies in a column published in the daily Le Monde.
“I think that the reputation of the Institut hospitalo-universitaire Méditerranée Infection (IHU) in Marseille is sufficiently seriously questioned today for this paper to be withdrawn in order to preserve the IHU”, explained to Agence France -Press the director of the AP-HM François Crémieux. In a tweet, the AP-HM explained that “Pr Jean-Christophe Lagier, co-author and head of service in the infectious diseases department, announced today the withdrawal of the pre-print”. Around 8 p.m. Friday, it was still accessible on one of the sites where it had been uploaded. Even if it were to be withdrawn, this does not mean that this study will not be put online again or with a smaller number of authors.
This pre-print, signed by the controversial Professor Didier Raoult and seven co-authors, several of whom work at the IHU, covers more than 30,000 Covid patients treated in Marseille in this institute directed by Didier Raoult until the summer of 2022. She concludes that the administration of hydroxychloroquine (or ivermectin) reduced the mortality of Covid patients.
The president of Aix-Marseille University, Eric Berton, also considered in an interview with AFP that this pre-print “does not serve the reputation” of the IHU, which needs to regain “serenity “. He fears that this will delay the authorization of the drug agency so that the IHU can resume clinical trials, which are currently suspended.
The 16 learned medical societies had regretted “the lack of reaction from the institutions” to the treatments prescribed by the IHU teams to patients with Covid-19, without proof of efficacy and in defiance of official recommendations.